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RSA isn’t too bothered by the cold, reporting “further progress” in the first quarter of 2018 even after winter weather losses hit the major insurer’s underlying profit.
“We are happy with RSA’s progress at this early stage of the year,” said RSA chief executive Stephen Hester. “The underlying business is tracking consistent with our ambitions overall, while winter weather volatility is a normal part of our business.
“Headline profits are also strongly up, reflecting the absence (as planned) of restructuring costs.”
RSA said improvements elsewhere failed to fully offset the increase in winter weather costs – resulting in lower profit, compared to the first quarter of last year, on an underlying basis. Pre-tax profits, however, were higher than Q1 2017.
“Group weather costs were 5.1% of net earned premiums,” reported the London-headquartered firm. “This was 3.1 points higher than Q1 2017 and 1.9 points higher than the five-year average of 3.2%, with all regions impacted. Poor weather experience continued into April in Canada.”
Meanwhile, at constant FX rates, net written premiums of £1.5 billion were up 2% on an underlying basis. GWP climbed 1% to over £2 billion. In the UK it pointed to its partnership with Nationwide now being “in full swing” with operating benefits expected in the coming years.
